Mundelein couple happy to make America their home

Inside the beige brick building, across from the post office and next to the village hall, Valentina Mironova repairs broken teeth on a zipper. The owner is hoping to get a few more years out of the old purse.

Outside, the neon sign flashes Frank's Shoe & Luggage Repair. But it's been decades since Frank ran the shop in downtown Mundelein.

Customers know Frank isn't there anymore, but most don't know how Valentina ended up working at the little shop on Hawley Street.

Her parents were from Siberia but moved to Sakhalin, a 600-mile long island on Russia's extreme eastern edge. Her father was a geologist for the former Soviet government.

As a teen, she was part of a choral group that traversed the country performing in government run factories hoping to bring some joy to otherwise cheerless groups of workers.

And while she had one eye on the choir director, the other was focused on a handsome guitar player in her group. After a short romance, she married Vladamir and the couple settled in Ukraine.

Vladamir was a shoemaker and it seemed the harder he worked, the less money he made. Getting ahead and making a profit and were foreign concepts in the socialist system.

Long lines for everything from gas to sausage made life difficult. He took to making shoes secretly at home and selling them to make ends meet.

Hoping for a better life, they decided to leave.

Immigrating to America in the early '90s, they started a shoe and luggage repair business in the basement of an office in Park Ridge. A fire destroyed the building and their business. They couldn't afford insurance.

By now, they had two daughters and had to regroup.

Valentina took a job as a seamstress at a tent manufacturer in Chicago. Vladmir bought a fledgling shoe repair shop in West Dundee.

Eventually, they saved enough money to purchase Frank's from a Korean family who owned it.

And now, every morning, the Wheeling couple leaves early for work. Vladimir goes to repair shoes in West Dundee and Valentina to repair handbags and leather goods in Mundelein.

"We're a good team," she says. "This is a beautiful country."